Background

The W3C eGovernment Interest Group was chartered in June of 2008 recognizing that governments throughout the World needed assistance and guidance in achieving the promises of electronic government through technology and the Web.

The group and its efforts fill a distinct gap in the Web and technology standards space focusing on the unique and diverse needs and issues that governments throughout the developed and developing World face in enabling electronic service and information delivery and providing opportunities for discovery, interaction and participation.

This meeting brought together government officials, computer scientists, civic activists and academics specializing in both technical and legal eGovernment issues, leaders in the Web standards community, as well as a wide range of companies providing products and services in the government marketplace.

Purpose of the Meeting

The Group has been compiling Draft Use Cases to identify the main issues that governments are facing when using the Web, and is drafting an "issues document" (called Group Note) that will be released later this year with the main issues identified and hints on how they have can be solved.

The first public draft of the document has been published on 10 March 2009. The Interest Group will make every attempt to address any comments received by April 26 in the final document. It's highly recommended to read it in advance of the meeting.

This meeting served as the second face-to-face Group meeting plus a get together with eGovernment stakeholders to discuss the issues already identified, namely:

Participation and Citizen Engagement

Open Government Data

Interoperability

Multi-channel delivery

Identification and Authentication

Long term data management

and the future steps that should be taken in the second phase of the eGoverment Activity at W3C, that would start later this year.

Agenda

Sessions on open discussion following a provocation/reflection/action approach:

provocation with burning issues

analyze how those could be addressed

come up with actions that the Group should take and where it would be of most help

09.30-10.30 - View from the Government and Stakeholders, What Is More Important, What Is Missing, What the Future Could Bring to eGov

Ellen Miller (Sunlight Foundation)

Steve Ressler (Govloop)

Beth Noveck (Office of Science and Technology Policy)

10.30-10.45 - Break

10.45-12.30 - Participation and Citizen Engagement, Use of Social Media [John, Kevin to moderate]

Issues include:

How government employees can take advantage of rapidly developing social media tools while maintaining appropriate records under the management and control of their agencies.

Whether a Human Reference Model (HRM) can be incorporated into the Federal Enterprise Architecture (FEA) to enable the linkage of key stakeholder groups to performance goals in compliance with subsections 202(b)(4) & (5) and 207(d) of the eGov Act.

Whether the XML schema (XSD) for the Federal Enterprise Architecture (FEA) Data Reference Model (DRM) can be finalized and will be used.

Whether the eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) Specification can be incorporated with appropriate mappings to service the tracking of expenditures and aid the transparency & openness efforts across the Federal government.

Whether agencies will make available key documents (e.g., their GPRA plans) on their websites in readily shareable format (like StratML).

M-09-10, Initial Implementing Guidance for the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).

Incorporation of W3C Recommendations in the Federal Enterprise Architecture (FEA) Technical Reference Model (TRM) with appropriate mappings to service components in the Service Component Reference Model (SRM),

Whether standards development organizations (SDOs) are willing and able to map their standards to .gov service requirements, and

Whether .gov agencies will be willing and able to share information, knowledge and expertise regarding emerging technologies, including standards that should be in the TRM (e.g., through the ET.gov site/process, MAX, CORE.gov and/or the Wikis supported by GSA.)